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I
t was supposed to have been
the definitive piece of scientific
evidence that finally exposed the
true identify of Jack the Ripper
after he had brutally murdered at
least five women on the streets of
Whitechapel in the East End of London,
126 years ago.
A 23-year-old Polish immigrant barber
called Aaron Kosminski was “definitely,
categorically and absolutely” the man
who carried out the atrocities in 1888,
according to a detailed analysis of DNA
extracted from a silk shawl allegedly found
at the scene of one of his murders.
However, the scientist who carried out
the DNA analysis has apparently made a
fundamental error that fatally undermines
his case against Kosminski — and once
again throws open the debate over who
the identity of the Ripper.
The scientist, Jari Louhelainen, is said
to have made an “error of nomenclature”
when using a DNA database to calculate
the chances of a genetic match.
If true, it would mean his calculations
were wrong and that virtually anyone
could have left the DNA that he insisted
came from the Ripper’s victim.
The apparent error, first noticed by
crime enthusiasts in Australia blogging
on the casebook.org website, has been
highlighted by four experts with intimate
knowledge of DNA analysis — including
Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, the inventor
of genetic fingerprinting — who found
that Dr Louhelainen made a basic
mistake in analysing the DNA extracted
from a shawl supposedly found near the
badly disfigured body of Ripper victim
Catherine Eddowes.
They say the error means no DNA
connection can be made between
Kosminski and Eddowes. Any suggestion
therefore that the Ripper and Kosminski
are the same person appears to be based
on conjecture and supposition — as it has
been ever since the police first identified
Kosminksi as a possible suspect more than
a century ago.
The latest flurry of interest in Kosminski,
who died in a lunatic asylum, aged
53, stems from a book, Naming Jack
the Ripper, published earlier this year,
by Russell Edwards, a businessman
who bought the shawl in 2007 on the
understanding that it was the same piece
of cloth allegedly found next to Eddowes.
“I ’ve got the only piece of forensic
evidence in the whole history of the case.
I’ve spent 14 years working, and we have
finally solved the mystery of who Jack
the Ripper was. Only non-believers that
want to perpetuate the myth will doubt.
This is it now — we have unmasked him,”
Edwards told The Mail on Sunday, which
serialised his book.
Edwards commissioned Dr Louhelainen,
a molecular biologist at Liverpool John
Moores University, to carry out a forensic
analysis of the shawl, including the
extraction of any DNA samples that may
be present within the cloth, which had
been supposedly stored unwashed all
this time by the family of the London
policeman who had acquired the artefact.
Dr Louhelainen, who declined to answer
questions, managed to extract seven
incomplete fragments of mitochondrial
DNA (mtDNA), and tried to match their
sequences with mtDNA from a living
descendant of Eddowes, called Karen
Miller.
The work has not been published in
a peer-reviewed journal, and the only
detailed description by Dr Louhelainen
comes from Edwards’ book.
“One of these amplified mtDNA
segments had a sequence variation which
gave a match between one of the shawl
samples and Karen Miller’s DNA only;
i.e . the DNA sequence retrieved from
the shawl did not match with control
reference sequences,” Dr Louhelainen
writes.
“This DNA alteration is known as global
private mutation (314.1C) and it is not
very common in worldwide population, as
it has frequency estimate of 0.000003506,
i.e. approximately 1/290,000. This figure
has been calculated using the database at
Institute of Legal Medicine, GMI, based
on the latest available information. Thus,
this result indicates the shawl contains
human DNA identical to Karen Miller ’s
for this mitochondrial DNA segment,” he
says.
But experts with detailed knowledge
of the GMI’s mtDNA database claimed
that Dr Louhelainen made an “error of
nomenclature” because the mutation in
question should be written as “315.1C”
and not “314.1C”. Had Dr Louhelainen
done this, and followed standard forensic
practice, he would have discovered the
mutation was not rare at all but shared
by more than 99% of people of European
descent.
“ If the match frequency really is 90%
plus, and not 1/290,000, then obviously
there is no significance whatsoever in the
match between the shawl and Eddowes’
descendant, and the same match would
have been seen with almost anyone who
had handled the shawl over the years,”
Professor Jeffreys said.
Dr Louhelainen appears to have made
a basic error in calculating the frequency
estimate. There are currently about 34,617
entries in the GMI database, and the
figure would have been nearer to 29,000
when Dr Louhelainen carried out his
research some time ago. So failing to find a
match for a non-existent mutation should
have given a frequency of about 1/29,000
— a n error suggesting that he had placed a
decimal point in the wrong place.
“The random match probability of a
sequence only seen once (as claimed for
the shawl) is therefore roughly 1/34,617.
With a database of this size, it is
impossible to arrive at an estimate as low
as 1/290,000,” Professor Jeffreys said.
Other scientists echoed Professor Jeffreys’
concerns, including Mannis van O ven,
professor of forensic molecular biology at
Rotterdam’s Erasmus University, Professor
Walther Parson of the Institute of Legal
Medicine in Innsbruck, and Hansi
Weissensteiner, also at Innsbruck and
one of the scientists behind the computer
algorithm used by Dr Louhelainen to
search the mtDNA database.
A spokesperson for publishers Sidgwick
and Jackson said: “ The author stands by
his conclusions. We are investigating the
reported error in scientific nomenclature.
However, this does not change the DNA
profiling match and the probability of
the match calculated from the rest of the
haplotype data. The conclusion reached in
the book, that Aaron Kosminski was Jack
the Ripper, relies on much more than this
one figure.” — New Zealand Herald
Greymouth Star
Opinion/Features
4 - Tuesday, October 21, 2014
We appreciate the value of the Letters to the Editor
column as a public forum for West Coasters and
welcome your opinion and suggestions.
Letters may be submitted by post, fax or e-mail and
must include your name, address, phone number
and — except for e-mails — your signature.
Noms de plume are not accepted.
Please keep your letters honest, respectful and
within 300 words. Letter writers will generally not
be published more often than weekly. The Editor
reserves the right to edit or not publish letters,
especially those that are offensive or too long.
Post to PO Box 3, Greymouth, fax to 768 6205 or
email to editor@greystar.co.nz
uLetters to the editor
1824 - Portland cement, the modern building
material, is first patented by Joseph Aspdin of
Wakefield, Yorkshire.
1861 - First South American railroad line
inaugurated in Paraguay.
1879 - Thomas Edison invents the electric
lamp.
1904 - Russian fleet fires upon
British trawlers in North Sea.
1944 - US troops capture Aachen,
the first big German city to fall to the
Allies in World War Two.
1945 - Women vote for first time in
France.
1950 - Chinese forces begin
occupation of Tibet.
1960 - HMS Dreadnought, Britain’s first
nuclear submarine, is launched by Queen
Elizabeth.
1964 - Movie musical My Fair Lady, starring
Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, has world
premiere in New York.
1989 - A Honduran jet breaks apart in flight
and crashes outside Tegucigalpa, killing at least
120 people.
1995 - Presidents and premiers from around
the world gather in New York City for the 50th
anniversary of the United Nations.
uWest Coast yesteryear
uToday in history
Hokusai, Japanese artist (1760-1849);
Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor (1833-1896);
Georg Solti, Hungarian-born conductor
(1912-1997); Manfred Mann, British
pop star (1940-); Judith Sheindlin,
American lawyer and judge, better
known as Judge Judy (1942-); Lee
Loughnane, US musician (1946-);
Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli
prime minister (1949-); Carrie Fisher,
US actress-writer (1956-); David
Campese, Australian rugby union player
(1962-); Kim Kardashian, American socialite
and reality television star (1980-).
“ You will never ‘find’ time for anything. If
you want time you must make it.” —
Charles Buxton, English author (1823-1871).
“Now before faith came, we were imprisoned
and guarded under the law until faith would be
revealed.” — (Galatians 3:23).
The shrub that laid
low three elephants,
tutu (‘toot ’ to most)
grows abundantly
on the West Coast. This morning it took a
Greymouth Star reporter only five minutes from
the town centre to find a bush, pluck a sprig
and return to the office. Surprisingly, though it
has been responsible for the greatest percentage
of plant poisonings of stock in New Zealand,
it is not a noxious weed in the meaning of the
Noxious Weeds Act. And children who crush
the berries of the tutu shrub and drink the juice
will have little sympathy for the suggestion that
it should be so declared. The berries appear to
have no ill effects but the bushes are certainly
poisonous to stock.
There have been recorded deaths through tutu
poisoning in this country but no recent ones.
This bears out the widely-held theory that most
New Zealand animals have built up a resistance
to it. Elephants are a case apart. Mr J Perry,
manager of the circus in which the elephants
appear, said this morning that he regarded their
recovery as a “miracle”. He said they were still
on a largely liquid diet and were being watched
closely for an onset of complications.
Nine Hokitika residents were recently sworn
in as civil defence police before Mr J F Keenan
JP, at a ceremony in that town. Those sworn in
were: Messrs T M Morrison (Kowhitirangi),
J M Atkinson, C G McIntosh, A Murphy,
R L Roberts, R L Rountree, W S Routhan,
C E Woolhouse, J R White.
A tenth person, Mr J B Renton, will be
sworn in on his return from Tokyo where he is
attending the Olympic Games.
uToday’s birthdays
uFood for thought
uFaith
Printed and published by the
Greymouth Evening Star Co Limited
3 Werita Street, PO Box 3, Greymouth
Phone
03 769 7900 (office)
769 7913 (editorial)
768 6205 (fax)
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Editor
Paul Madgwick
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Sports Editor
Viv Logie
sport@greystar.co .nz
Chief Reporter
Laura Mills
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Reporters
03 769 7913
Hokitika
03 755 8422
Reporters
Thomas
Edison
1964
Kim
Kardashian
An image from the Black Museum, at Scotland Yard, depicting Jack the Ripper preying on one of his victims.
Ripper doubts
Glasgow
A fatty molecule lays
down a “ breadcrumb
trail” that allows
malignant skin cancer to
spread around the body,
research has shown.
Signals from
the molecule,
lysophosphatidic acid
(LPA), help to make
melanoma cells unusually
aggressive and mobile.
Scientists hope the
discovery will lead to new
strategies for slowing or
halting the lethal spread
of melanoma.
Tests on laboratory cell
lines and mice revealed
how the tumour cells
start their journey by
breaking down a nearby
source of LPA.
Once those molecules
are depleted, the cells
move out of the tumour
in search of more. Each
encounter with LPA
prompts the cells to keep
moving. “O ur exciting
findings show that skin
cancer cells create their
own ‘green light ’ signal to
start spreading, and are
lured to travel around the
body by a trail of these
fatty molecules,” lead
scientist Professor Robert
Insall, from the Beatson
Institute at the University
of Glasgow, said.
“The next step will be to
find how the melanoma
cells break down the
LPA molecules to see if
this sparks ideas for new
ways to stop the cancer
from spreading. At the
moment our research is
still in early stages but
we hope this could help
doctors to make sure this
cancer doesn’t spread.”
The research is
published in the on-line
journal Public Library of
Science Biology.
Each year more
than 11,000 people in
Australia are diagnosed
with melanoma and in
2011 more than 1500
died from the disease,
according to the Cancer
Council Australia.
Rates of melanoma are
60% times higher than
they were 30 years ago.
“Sadly there are few
options available for
patients whose melanoma
has spread, which is
especially concerning as
this type of cancer has
risen rapidly since the
70s,” Professor Nic Jones,
chief scientist at Cancer
Research UK, which
funded Prof Insall’s team,
said.
“Research like this is
crucial to find effective
ways to limit the spread
of tumours and increase
the chances for more
successful treatment of
this horrible disease. We
can all also reduce our
risk of the disease by
keeping safe in the sun.
When the sun is strong
it ’s best to cover up with
clothes and spend time in
the shade to protect your
skin from sunburn and
reduce your risk of skin
cancer. ” — PAA
Skin cancer’s
‘ breadcrumb trail’
Robert Insall
Washington
Kangaroos hop, right? Well, not all
of them.
Scientists say that a biomechanical
and statistical analysis of fossil bones
of a group of huge extinct kangaroos
shows that the largest of the bunch in
all likelihood could not hop as their
modern-day relatives do with aplomb.
The study focused on a group of big-
bodied, short-faced kangaroos called
sthenurines that lived in Australia from
about 13 million years ago until about
30,000 years ago, disappearing after the
first humans arrived on the continent.
These kangaroos were more heavily
built than modern ones and had faces
reminiscent of a rabbit. The largest,
a species called Procoptodon goliah,
weighed about 240kg, stood 2m tall
and was 3m long.
The study found important
anatomical differences in sthenurines’
limb bones compared with other
kangaroos.
In terms of locomotion, they were
unlike today ’s kangaroos, with an
anatomy ill-suited for hopping. They
likely walked in an upright bipedal
stance — putting one foot in front of
the other, just like people — in a way
modern kangaroos cannot, the study
found.
This was facilitated by larger hips
and knee joints as well as stabilised
ankle joints, unlike today ’s kangaroos
but like animals that walk or run. They
also had a relatively inflexible spine not
conducive for hopping.
“ Today ’s kangaroos mostly use
hopping as their fast gait — although
tree kangaroos rarely hop. But for slow
speeds they use a type of ‘pentapedal’
walk, using all four legs and the tail,”
Brown University paleontologist
Christine Janis, who led the study
published in the scientific journal Plos
One, said.
With their stiff backs and specialised
hands, this “pentapedal” gait would
have been difficult for sthenurines.
They also lacked certain specialised
anatomical features of modern large
hopping kangaroos, the researchers
said.
Janis said she suspected smaller
sthenurines used bipedal walking at
slow speeds and may have switched
to hopping at faster speeds. “But the
largest ones may have walked rather
than hopped most if not all of the
time,” Janis said.
Virtually all kangaroos today hop,
although a species called the Musky
Rat-kangaroo does not.
Australia is famous for its marsupials,
mammals that carry newborns in
a pouch on the mother’s abdomen,
including kangaroos, koalas, wombats
and others.
Procoptodon, the largest known
kangaroo, lived from about 125,000
years ago to 30,000 years ago.
“Something the size of Procoptodon
would have had a hard time hopping, if
it hopped at all,” Janis said. “Research
on living kangaroos shows that they are
close to the limit in terms of tendon
strength while hopping.”
Procoptodon lived alongside animals
like the nearly hippopotamus-sized
herbivorous marsupial Diprotodon,
the “marsupial lion” Thylacoleo and the
giant monitor lizard Megalania that
measured roughly 7.5m.
Scientists say Procoptodon and its
group went extinct possibly because
of hunting by humans who arrived
in Australia about 50,000 years ago,
environmental changes wrought by
people or climate changes. — Reuters
PICTURE: Reuters
An artist ’s rendering shows a big-bodied, short-faced kangaroo called a sthenurine that lived in Australia from about
13 million years ago until about 30,000 years ago, according to scientists.
Early kangaroos ‘didn’t hop’